"It's dead."
Lu Ling breathed a sigh of relief.
If it had survived the blessing-empowered dragon breath, what followed might have been a desperate, life-threatening battle.
"Even you don't recognize this Demon Beast?"
"No." Ling Ling shook her head and began taking notes on her little tablet.
"A tiger-shaped Demon Beast with dark power..."
Lu Ling had little interest in knowledge about Demon Beasts. Generally, he only needed to remember their weaknesses and special skills.
Ling Ling was different. She needed to understand every aspect of Demon Beasts.
"What a shame. The corpse is completely charred. There's nothing useful left." Wearing gloves, Ling Ling gently poked the black tiger's corpse.
Even if it could wield dark power, it was still a flesh-and-blood creature of this world. Like humans, it had probably exchanged something with the Dark King to obtain dark power. Perhaps the entire Dark Baleful Forest was filled with such creatures.
"Can't be helped. When facing the unknown, I can only go all out."
Ling Ling nodded. That fit her philosophy perfectly. Taking it a step further meant simply running away. Only by staying alive could one do more.
"Okay, let's keep going..." Ling Ling suddenly stopped, her face full of wariness.
"What's wrong?"
"Lu Ling... it's so quiet here."
"It's been quiet this whole time."
"That's exactly what's strange. When you spotted that black tiger just now, how far away was it?"
"Whoooosh~~~~" Wind actually began blowing through the utterly silent forest, as though something were awakening.
"Only a few dozen meters..."
Wait. Lu Ling realized something. There was a possibility that the black tiger hadn't been lurking a few dozen meters away from them, but rather... that inside the Dark Baleful Forest, his mental detection range was only a few dozen meters!
"Li Fire Domain!"
"Fierce Fist, Nine Palaces!"
Lu Ling couldn't care less about protecting the forest. Under his control, nine towering pillars of fire spread along an arc with a radius of a hundred meters, centered on him.
He closed his eyes and sensed carefully. The next instant, his eyes snapped open, and he scooped up Little Ling Ling and jumped onto the Heavenly Star White Dragon.
"Let's go!! Long Zhanye!"
With a beat of her wings, the Heavenly Star White Dragon soared into the sky again.
"What happened?" Ling Ling asked.
"These black tigers... live in packs!" Before he finished speaking, black tigers leaped onto the treetops one after another from the forest below.
Every one of them had eyes brimming with hostility.
"That's the downside of lacking information. Luckily, we can fly," Ling Ling said.
"Haa~~"
"Hooo~~~"
One black tiger let out a loud howl, and a hundred tigers answered. They opened their cavernous, blood-red maws, dark energy gathering within.
"Wait... didn't that one just use a ranged attack...?" Ling Ling said blankly.
"No kidding! Let's shake them off first!" The Heavenly Star White Dragon flew higher.
The black tiger pack beneath them also fired hundreds of black laser beams at once.
"Chaos Domain, Chaos Surface!"
Lu Ling instantly cast an Intermediate Magic spell of the Chaos Element.
He placed the Chaos Surface around the Heavenly Star White Dragon, altering order over a wide area.
He wasn't foolish enough to use Chaos Vortex to swallow those hundreds of black beams. There was absolutely no way it could swallow them all!
Just before the black beams touched the Heavenly Star White Dragon, the Chaos Surface twisted their trajectories, scattering them in all directions and knocking down countless trees.
"Dragon Radiance!" Pinpricks of fluorescence lit up Long Zhanye's wings. That faint glow swiftly spread across both dragon wings, then over her entire body.
For a moment, Long Zhanye's whole body emitted this dazzling light. Under its radiance, the pursuing black beams actually melted and dispersed like spring snow.
The light attribute!
Right, Long Zhanye was a light-attribute flying dragon! She definitely had at least a slight advantage over the Shadow Element here.
This was the first time Lu Ling had seen Long Zhanye use this skill.
"Lu Ling, their combined attack is coming again!"
"Seriously? Don't these beasts have any limits on their ranged skills? They can use them again immediately without even catching their breath?"
Lu Ling hurriedly set up more Chaos Surfaces to ease the pressure on Long Zhanye.
The white dragon flew deeper into the forest, but the black tigers remained relentless, showing no intention of giving up.
The black beams were refracted farther away, and many trees could be seen crashing down.
"Why does it feel like there are more and more black tigers?"
"It looks like the beams you refracted... drew them over." Gazing into the distance, Ling Ling spotted many black tigers joining the punitive force.
"Is this really necessary? Just one insignificant companion died!" Lu Ling cursed.
"Long Zhanye, let's fly faster and shake them off."
"I can't... this is already my top speed." Long Zhanye sounded somewhat puzzled.
"There seems to be some kind of restriction here. I felt it when I used my dragon breath earlier."
"A restriction!?"
Lu Ling inwardly sensed trouble. Exploring without information really was licking blood off a blade's edge. Perhaps he himself was also being suppressed by the Dark Baleful Forest.
"Skree!!!!"
"Skree!!!"
"Skree!!!!"
A thick pillar of energy toppled a towering tree. Eagle cries filled with murderous fury pierced the sky!
"This is bad, Lu Ling! We've provoked flying Demon Beasts!"
"We can't worry about all that now!"
"Space Rhythm, Time Lag!"
"Fierce Wave, Expulsion!"
Lu Ling tried to create some resistance for the black tiger pack, but there were simply too many. By stepping over one another, they could ignore his Fierce Wave.
Dozens of pitch-black demonic eagles flew into the sky. They pursued far faster than the black tigers running on the ground.
"Are you kidding me?! It was clearly the black tigers that hit those demonic eagles' nests. Instead of fighting the black tigers, they're chasing us? Are these Demon Beasts really that intelligent?"
"Judging by their size, every Demon Beast here is at least Warrior Level. They're not that stupid!" Ling Ling shouted.
"Li Fire, Fierce Fist, Nine Flood Dragons!"
Nine fiery flood dragons spiraled out, scattering part of the black tigers' formation, but black tigers immediately filled the gaps left behind. They showed no fear at all!
Lu Ling felt as though he were being hunted by a well-trained army.
His magic couldn't do any real damage to them at all. Were these things really Warrior Level?! He would have believed it if someone called them Commander Level!
Was he really being suppressed? There was no reason a Soul Seed-level offensive spell couldn't kill a Warrior Level creature!
He was clearly only an Intermediate Mage, yet now hundreds of Commander Level Demon Beasts were chasing him. What a thrill!
"Hey!!! Could you give me a lift!!!"
On a small mound several hundred meters ahead, a long-haired woman was waving at them.
"Why is there someone here?!" Ling Ling said anxiously. "Hurry and bring her up, or we'll get her killed!"
"Got it!"
"Space Rhythm, Time Lag."
Gritting his teeth, Lu Ling cast a Time Lag space at the very limit of his range, obstructing the demonic eagles pursuing them relentlessly.
"Long Zhanye, fly a little lower!"
"Okay!"
The Heavenly Star White Dragon slowly descended, but her speed only increased.
When they were about a hundred meters from the woman.
Lu Ling focused his gaze and his will together, locking firmly onto her.
"Mind Control!"
The woman was immediately lifted up. She seemed not to realize why she had risen into the air, and she thrashed wildly, screaming.
"Stop screaming! You're distracting me from escaping!"
"Huh?"